Front End Chatter

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter #63, brought to you by the definitely-not-primates at Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk where, as well as all the latest news, views and reviews of all things motorcycling, you'll also find a handy link to the superb insurance services of Bennetts). In this not-especially-numerically-significant episode of Britain's best biking podcast, Simon and Martin chatter about:

• MotoGP from Austria, where someone cleared off for a bit, then there was a bit of a ding-dong and someone won and someone didn't, and there was a last-lap, last-corner, last-gasp move that was actually just a bit silly even though nobody seems to want to say it (except the bloke who won).
• British Superbikes from Cadwell Park, which neither of us watched even though one of us was actually there, and which turned out to be pretty brilliant.
• The new 158bhp BMW road bike that we've both ridden but only one of us can talk about.
• Touratech going insolvent, which is all very curious given almost everyone seems to be riding an adventure bikes these days.
• Plus all of your emails - sent to [email protected] - including whether Triumph's new Street Triple 765 RS lives up to the hype, how to survive a group ride with complete strangers, the interweb going crazy over the GS fork recall and the reality of the situation from an owner, Sprint ST vs a Glasgow winter, whether you can tell if someone's riding style is "outright dangerous" from a photo, and plenty more.

Thank you very much for listening (hopefully through www.bikesocial.co.uk if you'd like to kindly support the folk who kindly support us). We are, as ever, @SimonHbikes and @Mufga on the Twitter, and eagerly await your thought, opinions, questions and ponderings arriving on email via [email protected] (yes, literally anything).

Ta-ta for now!

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter, the semi-regular spoken word salad that refuses to stray into nostalgia (other than to remember when nostalgia was better than it is today). Episode #62 continues to be supported by the wondrous website known as Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk) where you should definitely go to check out all the latest motorcycling news and reviews. And get an insurance quote. Go on.

In this 90-minute natter extravaganza, Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Brno, which was either brilliant or boring, where the winner won by a move of either sheer genius or random fortune
• Is it time to wave the chequered flag on flag-to-flag races?
• Guy Martin's future plans, and whether he's quitting, retiring, or quitting retiring?
• The new 'global partnership' between Triumph and Bajaj – and how many badges can you bodge on a Bajaj?
• Is the London scooter crime spree creating a potential new marketing opportunity?
• The most expensive zeroes and ones in motorcycling

Plus all of your emails covering everything from a little-known but much-loved Australian bike-gang film, recalling recalls and more GS stanchion shenanigans, the exceptional machines of Honda's golden period, overlooked V-twins, bargain sports-tourers, the value of ABS, a reason to speed, the blame game, and the best bikes we've crashed.

Thank you very much once again for listening. If you'd like to chatter back, email us on [email protected] or find us on the Twitters – he is @SimonHbikes and he is @Mufga

And if you're going to fire up your interwebsitebrowser, don't forget to point it towards www.bikesocial.co.uk !

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter – Britain's best biking podcast, powered (and empowered) by the wondrous two-wheeled website known as Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk – and you should definitely check them out).

It's episode 61, which as everybody knows is the **must remember to search Google for an obscure name of somebody who once raced a motorcycle with number 61 here** episode. Which, ironically, has very little racing at all, being mostly composed of:

• Chatter about the front end of BMW's R1200GS, and how the previous service campaign – not a recall – to fix the fork stanchions is, erm, ahem, cough, now a recall.
• Martin rides to a village in the German Alps to drink beer in the company of 40,000 bikes, while Simon rides to a café near Whitchurch for the world's largest all-female bikers meeting.
• Aprilia's Shiver 900, and why are "middleweight"s getting so big now?
• Plus roughly one trillion and seventy-two of your finest emails, covering everything from Yamaha Tracer adverts, insurance groups, the best bikes ever to grace the silver screen, Simon gets his helmet out to demonstrate something to Martin, is the new Fireblade changing its tune or is that just the rider, and lots and lots and lots more.

To chatter back to us, email [email protected] or Twit us on @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

And, of course, go take a look at Bike Social!

Welcome to Front End Chatter E60, sponsored as always by our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk and backed by Bennetts, the bike insurance boys and girls. And what a scandal-laden FEC we have this week:

• despite a truncated MotoGP/racing section we still manage to disrespeculate on Lorenzo's future at Ducati and compare his debut season so far to Rossi's disaster in 2011...

• get into the financial fall-out from the shambles formally known as the Circuit Of Wales...

• details of the new Ducati V4 replacement for the Panigale, after the Final Edition – which, it turns out, might not be so final after all, and will be available from September this year and will cost £35,000...

• ...and why the V-twin is the most versatile engine layout ever built

• BMW's service campaign to check all R1200GSs and GSAs built between late 2013 to date, to make sure the forks aren't about to fall off – and why we should or shouldn't be alarmed by it

• and how Honda's blighted 2017 FireBlade, both base and SP versions, stands up at a Mallory Park track day – a Bennetts Mallory Park track day, no less – against Suzuki's new GSX-R1000R All this takes so long we don't get time to read any emails at all, so apologies – but at least it means we'll have a another non-racing FEC in a few weeks' time! Thanks again for listening, and please email us at [email protected] with questions and comments, or get us on the Twitter:

@SimonHBikes & @Mufga

Welcome to Front End Chatter E59, brought to you in association with our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk, sponsored by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

AND! What an episode we have!

Just in time for the Assen MotoGP race this weekend, Front End Chatter recaps the previous round at Catalunya (apologies for the delay, delay, delay and don't worry, because it was so long ago we keep it brief) – and it's worth reminding ourselves what a hilarious, thigh-slapping sit-com of a race weekend it was with riders using the wrong track (but still in Spain), other riders falling over things and some riders falling over themselves.

We also cover – unusually – a cracking World Superbike race from Misano and find it a rewarding experience. Which is more than can be said for Ducati's Charles Davies.

We've a bit more race goss, including a possible return to racing for former WSB champ and ex-Yamaha MotoGP star Bens Pies, Iannone moving from Suzuki to Aprilia, why it would be cool to see Jonathan Rea switching from WSB to jump on the MotoGP Suzuki, why tyres 'spin' on the rim, the latest British Superbike round from Knockhill, and who is Jake Dixon and is he in the RAF? Plus a bit of natter about Hutchy's awful Senior TT crash. Yikes.

We also read out a few of your emails, including:

• more disrespeculation about Honda's FireBlade,
• wrist relief on motorways,
• recommended heated clothing,
• a bit of a rant about why magazine and web new bike 'tests' may or may not be all they seem,
• the blurring of distinction between PR and journalism, and
• is riding fast an addiction, and what can you do about it?

We think that's quite enough controversy for one episode, so if you enjoy FEC please

a) tell your mates,

b) email us with a question or a topic for discussion,

c) insure your bike with Bennetts and

d) buy RiDE magazine. We may be bought and paid for, but at least we're honest about it. Thanks, and talk at you again soon! @SimonHbikes

@Mufga

[email protected]

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 58, supported by www.bikesocial.co.uk and sponsored by Bennetts – and a very special, fully employed episode it is too; featuring, as it does:

1) Mugello MotoGP goss including

• Rossi's motocross crash
• a worrying resemblance to a CGI character from Lord Of The Rings
• a bad case of the shlitz
• fast Ducatis
• how to celebrate a win
• Mattia Pasini's odd riding controls and his clutchless downshifts
• Triumph's Moto2 deal

2) TT goss including – in fact almost entirely – semi-informed speculation about the travails of Honda, the 2017 Fireblade, and riders Guy Martin and John McGuinness – with an attempt to understand the connection between their accidents and the road bike (if there are any)

3) Loads of your emails, on wide-ranging subjects from the health of World Superbike and a few ideas on how to make it better, cheap motorway bikes, Husqvarna Nudas, more best-looking non-sportsbikes, and tons of other chattering.

As ever thank you very much for listening, and thank you even more for downloading it from the top folk at Bike Social (that's still www.bikesocial.co.uk). Please email us on [email protected] or get us on that there Twitter using @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter episode 57, which is really episode 69, powered by the mighty online juggernaut of two-wheeled infotainment that is Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk).

This time round Martin and Simon chatter in their front-endy style about:

• Nicky Hayden: the man, the talent, the achievements, the infectious passion, the generosity, the tears at Estoril, the tears at Valencia, the incredible strength of character, the smile.

• MotoGP from Le Mans, where General Zarco was propelled by patriotism, Lorenzo was stumped by strine, a small fall by Rossi led to a big fall in his championship standing, and Simon got in a huff and turned his telly off before the end of the race and went to spend some time in his log cabin that Danny Kent still hasn't turned up to finish yet.

• The red-bike, red-flag, red-fireball fest that was World Superbikes from Imola.

• John McGuinness's crash at the North West 200, what might have caused it, and whether it might have anything to do with the slightly peculiar throttle response on the 2017 road-going Fireblade.

• By popular demand (no, really), an excessively comprehensive review of the most promising (if hardly imaginatively named) electric road bikes yet.

• Your emails, including plenty of air expended about the pros and cons of airbag suits, do MotoGP fans like football, does FEC hate WSB… and finally… and finally?… and finally... a forgotten and (questionably) attractive non-sportsbike from Yamaha.

As ever thank you very much for listening, and thank you even more for downloading it from the top folk at Bike Social (that's still www.bikesocial.co.uk). Please email us on [email protected] or get us on that there Twitter using @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 56 brought to you in association with our pals at www.bikesocial.co.uk.

This week, between blackbird interruptions, we look back at the fallout from the spectacular Jerez MotoGP race – which isn't the same as the Corby Grand Prix – including:

• race weekend perfection from Daniel Pedrosa
• Yamaha's asymmetrical grip
• the world's least safe safety car
• a last corner clash that failed to materialise
• the closest championship since 2009
• do the riders, premium athletes to a man, actually pop a can of Red Bull in parc fermé?
• the trials and tribulations of ex-Moto2 rider and sometime World Champ Danny Kent, who's not from Kent

Plus – a re-evaluation of Ducati's SuperSport, the merits of A2-licence friendly inline fours or parallel twins, and news of Avon's new Spirit ST, their 'hypertouring' tyre.

Plus – some of your emails, including more of your best-looking non-sportsbikes, is speeding as socially unacceptable as drunk driving, who is General Zarco, what is the Kuiper Belt, is an MOT really necessary, what is defensive riding, how to fix a heavy throttle, and how to spot an idiot bike seller.

Thanks for listening, please support our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk, and please email us on [email protected]

Welcome to Front End Chatter episode 55, powered by the good people at Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk), where Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Texas, where we got the first mouth-watering tease of a proper Marquez v Vinales MotoGP scrap during qualifying, only to have all our hopes and dreams cruelly snatched away during the race in a massive shower of disappointment.
• The great GP lost-and-found phenomenon, including Lorenzo losing his temper and finding it caught on multiple HD cameras (and other great racing tantrums of our time); Loris Baz losing the front and finding himself praised for it (and other great racing non-crashes of our time); and Valentino Rossi losing his piece of racetrack to General Zarco and finding himself handed a 0.3-second penalty (and whether any of this should have ever happened at all).
• British Superbikes from Brands Hatch Indy circuit, where a nice smart young man appeared to come of age (not to be confused with his race number), won two races, shattered a circuit record - and, sorry, who is he again?
• BMW's new HP4 Race - which may or may not have been developed through racing, may or may not be eligible for any racing, and may or may not ever actually be raced by anyone ever - and where it ranks on the Front End Chatter exoticometer.
• Plus all of your emails, including the morality of riding fast on the street, whether magazines encourage law-breaking, the hidden costs of BMW's bargain K1200LT, back-torque talk, the world's best sub-95bhp motorcycle, why radiators are where they are, yet more Honda build quality complaints, the very best-looking bikes of all time ever, plus loads more!

Thanks for listening, and please:

- Visit our current official home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

- Catch us on Twitter at @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

- Send any thinkings, feedback, complaints, abuse and self-serving compliments you like to [email protected]

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E54, brought to you as is our wont, by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk. Subjects for discussion in E54 include:

• MotoGP from The Hot Springs Of the River Hondo circuit in Argentina – who won, who fell off, who thought they should've won, how many miles per gallon Cal Crutchlow gets from his RCV, and a whole bunch of nerdy stats including some so nerdy we can't actually work out what they mean

• World Snoozerbike from Aragon where

• British Superbike from Donington Park

• plus some bikes we've ridden including a thorough review of KTM's revamped 390 Duke, and a less coherent mention of Honda's new Rebel, CB1100s and CBR and CB650F

• plus your emails, which is easily the best bit, including why no-one makes 750 sportsbikes, why Rea could become the most winningest rider ever in WSB this year, and why swapping a Daytona 955i for a Versys 650 is a good idea. Thanks for listening, please visit www.bikesocial.co.uk to download FEC (or buy insurance from Bennetts), get hold of Martin and I on Twitter at:

@SimonHbikes and @Mufga And please keep firing in those emails about anything you want to correct us on, or want us to find out for you, or... whatever you want. Email: [email protected]

Thanks!